Kevin Durant wrote that he is prepared to undergo rehab following surgery to repair a torn right Achilles tendon.
Durant, 30, adds that despite suffering a catastrophic injury, he is “proud” of having suited up in Game 5 of the NBA Finals after sitting out a month with a calf strain.
Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr told reporters Wednesday that KD was “cleared to play by everybody involved.”
Stephen Curry said that he has complete faith in the Dubs’ medical staff.
Per The AP:
Kerr said everyone in the organization is “devastated,” including Dr. Rick Celebrini, the team’s director of medicine and performance. The Warriors made a “collaborative” decision to clear Durant to play — with the input of Durant and his representative — and had no idea that Durant risked a serious Achilles injury by returning from a strained calf, Kerr said.
“Now, would we go back and do it over again? Damn right,” he said. “But that’s easy to say after the results. When we gathered all the information, our feeling was the worst thing that could happen would be a re-injure of the calf. That was the advice and the information that we had. At that point, once Kevin was cleared to play, he was comfortable with that, we were comfortable with that. So the Achilles came as a complete shock. I don’t know what else to add to that, other than had we known that this was a possibility, that this was even in the realm of possibility, there’s no way we ever would have allowed Kevin to come back.”
Kerr said he also understands people wanting to point blame somewhere, though he noted, “Kevin checked all the boxes, and he was cleared to play by everybody involved,” including doctors from within the organization and from the outside.
“I completely understand the world we live in. As Bob [Myers] mentioned the other night, there’s going to be blame. There’s going to be finger-pointing. We understand that and we accept that. This is kind of what you sign up for when you get into coaching, general management, in the NBA,” Kerr said. “There’s all kinds of coverage, judgment, criticism, and it’s all part of it. So we accept that. The main thing is our concern for Kevin and these last couple of days just checking on him. Obviously, everybody feels horrible for what happened.”
Stephen Curry can only imagine how much Durant is hurting emotionally not being able to play — but second-guessing benefits nobody at this stage, the two-time MVP said.
“Everybody has great 20/20 hindsight,” Curry said, then added: “I trust our medical staff and know Bob Myers has our best interests in terms of not just what we can do in this series, but long term in our overall health. You see how hard he took it, talking to you guys after the game. And that’s really genuine and authentic. So you can waste time talking about the what-ifs and this and that. Injuries are tough and they suck. They’re a part of our game, and they’re going to continue to be a part of our game. But everybody putting their collective brains together to make the sound, smart decisions, you kind of just live with that, because that’s what’s a part of our game.”
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